A Lady's Guide to Gossip and Murder

by Dianne Freeman

  I certainly did. The train ran off the tracks in the snow. Most of the passengers were fine, but a few, including Jasper, sustained fatal injuries. Poor Jasper. Poor Mary.

  “So, they argued about something that caused Jasper to resign his position at the bank and plan a move to Edinburgh.” I might be jumping to conclusions, but it sounded as though he not only wanted to stop working with his brother, but wanted to put several hundred miles between them. This was hardly proof—in fact it was complete conjecture—but it did sound as though Jasper had just discovered what his brother was up to. Didn’t it? And could it be Ridley who told him?

  “I got the feeling Mr. Milton isn’t all that fond of Sir Hugo.”

  I turned a sharp eye on her. “Did he say how he came to be working for Ridley? Mrs. Wiggins told me he went there right after Jasper Archer’s death.”

  “He said Sir Hugo talked to him at the funeral. Said Mr. Archer recommended him as a good valet and would he like a job? Considering he was about to be out on his ear, well, it wasn’t like he could say no.”

  “Goodness, he must have been the valet from heaven if his employer’s brother was aware of his skills.” This sounded very strange indeed. Hugo and Jasper were friends. I could understand Hugo doing the kind thing. But I wondered why Archer involved himself in his brother’s valet’s welfare. “If I had a better opinion of Mr. Archer, I’d say he was simply trying to do a good deed. But for all that, Mr. Milton isn’t happy in his employment?”

  At this Jenny shrugged. “Can’t always be picky, my lady. He was about to be out of a job and Sir Hugo is a respectable man to work for. It could be worse.”

  “Yes, I suppose that’s true.” By this time, we were back at home. Before Jenny returned below-stairs, I thanked her for a job well done. I knew she could afford to be picky in her employment. I didn’t want to lose her.

  I was surprised to find George in my drawing room with Hetty and Lottie. Even more surprising, my card table was now covered with papers and files, bound and unbound. I gaped at the mess as I removed my hat and left it on the table by the door.

  “Aunt Hetty, was my library not large enough to contain your work?”

  The trio glanced up as I moved toward them. “There you are, dear.” Hetty gave me a smile. “Apologies for causing this disorder to your drawing room. Mr. Hazelton came to me in need of information and I thought there’d be more space out here.”

  “There used to be,” I said, taking a seat at the table and glancing at some of the documents. “Is this Graham’s paperwork?”

  George moved next to me. “Some of it. Henry Kendrick sent over some documents for your aunt today. Companies Archer’s bank invests with.”

  “Really? What are you doing with them?”

  “We are cross-referencing them with the list Mr. Hazelton brought,” Lottie said.

  At my raised brows, George explained further. “It took going around the clubs all night and most of today, but I found several gentlemen willing to speak to me about losses from some unfortunate investments they made with Archer.” He shrugged. “Taking into consideration even legitimate companies can provide a poor or negative return, I thought it best to determine if those investments did indeed involve legitimate companies. Hetty was gracious enough to apply to Kendrick for the list.”

  “Impressive work,” I said. “And?”

  “Well, as I’ve only just gathered everything, I don’t know yet.” Hetty inspected the list in her hand. “I can tell you I found no reference to the first two companies on your list.”

  “And if the company name isn’t on the bank’s list, it is not a legitimate company?” This seemed far too easy. Somehow, I must be a step behind.

  “Not necessarily,” George said, as Lottie and Hetty started a search for the next name on the list. “The document Kendrick provided is a list of companies the bank has approved for their clients. If one of Archer’s clients gave him some funds to invest, he should have chosen one of those companies. They’ve been vetted and given a risk factor. If the company name is not on the bank list that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t exist, but it calls into question why Archer would choose to invest with them.”

  “How did Mr. Kendrick obtain the bank’s list?”

  Hetty turned and flashed me a grin. “He sits on the board of directors for the bank.”

  “Ah, that’s certainly handy.” I saw George’s list held about eight names, which would take the ladies some time to research, so I drew him aside and told him what I’d learned from Jenny’s conversation with Jasper Archer’s former valet.

  Lines of worry crisscrossed his forehead. “So, Jasper had an argument with Ridley and abruptly resigned his employment. I never thought to ask why he was going to Edinburgh in the first place. That does have to make one wonder what Ridley told him.”

  “If Ridley was angry about losing money with Archer, it seems to have left no lasting resentment. He’s still investing with the man and seems to consider him a friend. He even hired Mr. Milton on Archer’s recommendation.”

  We’d moved away from the card table and seated ourselves on the sofa. George palmed his eyes and I noted the dark circles under them. How long had it taken for him to travel from club to club to find the eight men willing to tell him of their losses?

  He leaned back and gazed up at the ceiling. “If their argument was about an investment, Ridley might have received some sort of satisfaction from Gordon Archer.”

  “Perhaps Jasper confronted his brother and made good on Ridley’s loss,” I suggested.

  “How would he have explained how a loss turned into a gain?”

  I pulled a face. “Insurance? Hetty was trying to find out if the shipping company Graham invested in was insured. If Ridley was angry enough to go to Jasper, he might start shouting about his loss to all and sundry. Even if the company didn’t exist, it might be worth Archer’s while to tell Ridley insurance would cover his losses just to keep him quiet. And offer him a lucrative investment to win back his trust.”

  He pursed his lips. “I don’t suppose you know the name of the company Ridley was angry about?”

  “I don’t even know if that was the source of the argument. Mr. Milton couldn’t hear what they said. He only knew that right after that visit from Ridley, Jasper resigned and planned to leave town. A rather drastic step for a man who needed to work for a living.”

  “That means we don’t know if Mary Archer knew anything about her brother-in-law’s fraud either.”

  “Her husband must have given her some reason for resigning, don’t you think? And after his death, something made her turn away from her brother-in-law and refuse his support. I suspect Jasper found out about the fraud, and while he didn’t want to ruin his brother, he couldn’t be a party to it and so resigned. I can’t believe he would take such a drastic step and not inform Mary of the reason.”

  “But can you explain why she kept quiet about this for over a year and suddenly”—he shrugged—“what, she threatened him with exposure?”

  “Perhaps he agreed to stop and she recently learned that was not the case.”

  I sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I know this is a lot of speculation about one argument, but it fits the situation so indulge me for a moment. Mary had to approach this cautiously. At the time of Jasper’s death, she wasn’t writing the gossip column. She had no forum to expose Archer’s crime. Her only choice would have been to go to the police. She would have ruined the family, her husband’s good name, and any chance her nieces had for a future. And that’s if the police took her accusation seriously. If they didn’t, Archer might have had her locked up as hysterical.” I gave him a level look. “I suspect she confronted Gordon Archer and received his promise to stop.”

  “I agree you have a good theory, but we have no idea if any part of it is true.”

  George tipped his head back and blew out a breath. “We are speculating far too much. We must stick to facts and certainties.”

 
“Sadly, those are few. Ridley argued with Jasper about something. Whatever it was made Jasper confront his brother then resign from the bank. After that, he left for Edinburgh and was killed in the train accident. Soon after, Ridley hired Jasper’s unemployed valet.” I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “Our facts and certainties are pathetically meager.”

  “Perhaps it would be helpful to talk with Ridley.”

  “You can hardly ask him what he argued with Jasper about. I’ve already inquired into his investments with Archer and he seems to swear by the man. I don’t think you’d get him to admit, even to himself, that his losses with Archer had anything to do with trickery. Even Graham rejects the notion. And I think Ridley considers Archer a friend.”

  “Thus, any inquiry on my part might lead to a warning for Archer. It might be best to leave Ridley alone for now.”

  He drew a breath and released it in a half sigh, half growl. “What we really need is something that proves Mary Archer knew about Gordon Archer’s fraudulent dealings, and that he knew she was writing a column.”

  “Why do we need to know that?”

  “Because the editor was murdered as well as Mary. He had to know the editor could also expose him. Therefore, either Archer knew Mary was writing the column, or she threatened to go to the press, and somehow she must have implied that the editor already had the information or at least had access to it.”

  I had to agree. “For him to murder someone, to murder his own sister-in-law, he had to know exposure was imminent. If it was Archer, Mary must have threatened him.”

  He tilted his head to the side. “All right, so she threatens him with exposure and he murders her.” He raised a brow. “What about the editor?”

  I sat back and tried to imagine a scene. “Mary and Gordon argue. She tells him he must stop his fraudulent practices. He refuses. The argument becomes heated. She threatens him with exposure unless he stops. Enraged, Archer attacks her, threatening to silence her forever. To save her life, she tells him she’s just given the information to the editor in the form of her columns. If she dies, the story will be printed anyway. His hands tighten around her neck and she breathes her last.”

  He stared at me in fascination. I shrugged. “Then he goes after the editor.”

  “Ah, but there’s a flaw to the picture you paint.” He smiled as he shook a finger at me. “Unless she told him the name of the paper or of the column, how does he know who to go after? Many papers publish gossip.”

  I grimaced. “That is a rather large flaw.”

  We stared at one another for a moment, weighing all the possibilities. I could hear Hetty and Lottie murmuring at the table in the corner of the room. George finally broke the silence. “Do you recall if Mr. Mosley was taking care of all Mr. Norton’s work?”

  “He didn’t say that precisely, but he seemed to be doing so.”

  “Did you ask him if he’d received anything from Mrs. Archer after the murders?”

  “I never met the man without you by my side, but no, I don’t recall asking. And how could that be possible? Mary couldn’t send a letter after her death.”

  “No, but she could have put something in the post before her death.”

  I considered the idea. If Mary had taken such a precaution, she must have known she was treading on dangerous ground. It would have been safer to go to the police—but then the family would be ruined.

  “It’s worth checking into,” I said. “We shall have to go to the Observer and ask Mosley. But if he’d received something of that magnitude, wouldn’t he have informed Delaney?”

  He linked his fingers together in his lap. “He seemed to be rather snowed under with work, didn’t you think? If something was delivered, he may not have gotten to it yet.”

  “Perhaps we should check with Delaney first. If he has nothing, then we can talk with Mr. Mosley.” I let my head fall back against the sofa, remembering I was now a columnist. “I should take him another set of columns anyway.”

  “We should talk to Delaney.” He threw me a warning look. “But remember this is a theory only. I realize you feel strongly about Archer as a suspect, but we have nothing that even resembles proof.”

  Before I could respond, Hetty called for our attention. “All right, you two. I think I can safely say none of these companies are sanctioned for investment by the bank.”

  We moved over to the table where Hetty and Lottie had been working. “Neither are any of them listed on any of the exchanges,” she added.

  “That could mean only that they are privately held,” George said. “Not that they don’t exist.”

  “Two of them don’t exist.” Hetty’s tone was firm. “South Sea Equity and Central American Coffee Company were both part of Graham’s portfolio. We’ve already verified them as fraudulent.”

  Hetty pointed to their names on the list. Something felt oddly familiar about them.

  “There are three others on your list which follow the same pattern as the fake companies. They are not sanctioned by the bank, not listed on the exchange, and Archer sold shares just before the companies suffered a catastrophic loss.” Hetty extended a finger for each point she mentioned. “The odds are very good that none of the five companies exists anywhere outside Archer’s imagination.”

  I glanced at George. He appeared far less than pleased with the news. “I find her argument very compelling, don’t you?”

  He blew out a breath. “I must admit, I do. While we should continue our due diligence on the other three companies, I think it’s time we took this information to Delaney. There should be enough here for the police to charge Archer with fraud.” He held up a cautionary hand. “Not enough to prove murder, you understand. But it does give rise to suspicion. Delaney will likely question Archer about his sister-in-law, but I’m afraid that’s all we can hope for.”

  Disappointment weighed heavily on me as he gathered the documents into a stack.

  “Wait.” Lottie stayed his hand. “If you plan to take these papers to the police, we should make a record of them for ourselves.”

  George gave her a curious glance. “For what purpose?”

  “What if the police don’t feel they have enough evidence to question Archer about the murders? It may be up to us to pursue this evidence until we find the murderer.” She shrugged. “If we are to give away the original documents, we must at least have a record of them.”

  “She’s right,” I said. “It may be up to us. And the Kendricks will be at the Ridleys’ soiree tomorrow. Hetty may be able to obtain more information about these companies from Mr. Kendrick so she’ll need a list of the names.”

  I took a seat next to Lottie and we began recording all the documentation in a ledger. Within half an hour we had a list of the fraudulent companies and the gentlemen who had invested in them and lost everything. We made note of which companies we knew to be illegitimate, and those requiring further investigation. As I reviewed the list, I realized why some of the names sounded familiar.

  “My heavens,” I said, earning curious glances from my companions. “We already have this information. We’ve even written and published a column about them. The initials for these companies are all in that cryptic note.” I waved my hand at Mary’s files, stacked next to Lottie’s elbow. “I believe we’ve deciphered it at last.”

  Lottie dug through the first file until she found the note and placed it at the center of the table. We all leaned forward to study it.

  SSE, CTS, W-H & S, CACC. 6 March, 1898. LH, SH, LM, LR at least J.

  “The first notation is South Seas Equity,” she said. “And CACC is Central American Coffee Company.”

  One by one we found the four companies on Hetty’s list, two of which she’d already determined were fraudulent. The other two were in the “Suspicious” column.

  “The following sets of initials may well refer to people who invested in the fake companies,” Lottie said. “That rather makes sense now. As of the sixth of March, 1898, those four people were duped into i
nvesting in those four companies.” She wrinkled her nose. “But what does at least J mean?”

  Hetty peered over my shoulder. “Perhaps it means at least those four people. And are you sure that’s a “J”? There’s a bit of a flourish to it.”

  I studied the letter. There was a flourish to it, and for good reason. “It’s a signature,” I said. “J for Jasper. He signed the note.”

  I fell back against the chair. Now that we understood the note, I don’t know how it had eluded us for so long. “Jasper Archer wrote this note. That’s why the paper is different and why the handwriting is as well. He either left it with Mary, or she found it in his belongings.”

  George read the note once more and gave me a smile. “Good work, Frances.”

  “I think this proves Mary knew what her brother-in-law was up to.”

  He tipped his head to the side and raised a brow. “It does seem to point that way, but the question remains; Did he know what she was up to?”

  Chapter 22

  Our work took us well into the night, largely because George insisted we go through every single document and sheet of paper from Mary’s collection.

  “The note is enough to make Delaney open an investigation into Archer’s dealings, but unless he confesses, it isn’t near enough to convict him, even for the fraud charges,” he said. “If Jasper, or Mary, had something in Archer’s handwriting, or some solid proof he was deliberately swindling his clients, I’d feel more secure about our case.”

  We foraged through everything. And came up with nothing. We did, however, find two names from the list of swindled aristocrats that matched the initials on the note. And with our documents in hand, we set off to find Delaney the next afternoon.

  We had no luck tracking him down at his division in Chelsea so we moved on to the Daily Observer to deliver my columns. For once I gave thanks for mourning clothing as I could carry off a veil without attracting attention. The day was growing warm as we stepped from the carriage and into the office.